Procrastination Dancing

Last night I went dancing.

Salsa dancing.

I was really okay with going by myself because it gave me a chance to go a bit crazier. By crazier I mean that I was able to dance like a cheerleader. But alas, no pictures. It was a pretty interesting, memorable experience.

I came back to our Casa and told everyone how it was cool. I also then told him how I was the only guy there. I don't know if that means I joined an all girls group.

My pride was a little damaged.

Although finals are Thursday, I am going to play pool!

Let's Start Talking

So,

I've been doing some other little things I haven't mentioned. One of those things is LST. We had LST on Wednesday and some of us met some really cool people. It's like rewarding to look at the smiling people who surround you in the midst of LST. It's really cool! This night pictured was the day after LST when our new friends simply came into our Casa just to chat. How cool is that?

Not to mention, there is still that evident language barrier that isn't that large of a barrier anymore.

Inside Aviary

haha

Positive Ambition

"It's funny how you find you enjoy your life when you're happy to be alive" - song lyrics from "High of 75" by band Relient K

Study abroad in South America is amazing!!

Cheerful Duties

So, remember that time when I said how I have a lot of things to do?

Yeah.

Life happens and I can't not have fun. Some of us played ultimate frisbee Friday, some played frisbee golf Saturday and watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. By 'some' I mean that I and some various students did. I must admit though, it really was tempting to stay inside and study or export funny pics like these from my upcoming Brazil video:

Yes, a bird actually did peck my camera thinking it was food. That is why this picture is partially out of focus. It was funny though. Some onlookers watched and we moved on to Iguaçu falls. It is difficult to avoid embracing South America but I really do have much to do.

title

I have three monkeys now: B.A., Sondra and Guarano. I am happy.

Think that my interests in cinema and monkeys are a bit juvenile but can also merely justify my academic pursuit to be an improving video journalist? Yeah, I think so too. In that academic pursuit, I find that this week finished has been a pretty hard one. But, that's how it is here; intensely enjoyable as intensely academic. Got to get back to things I should do! 

Foz Do Iguaçu

These pictures ended up out of order, despite my best efforts. Oh well, you get the idea.

The 22 year-old tour guide who's father was also our guide

This picture is sideways but the background is where Paraguay, Argentina and Brazil meet.

A Guarani Indian house

Birds!

At the dinner show

Our father and son tour guides. They were so cool!

"Dirt cleans off a lot easier than blood" - Gladiator

So the answer is a river. I thought the Foz do Iguaçu picture may be a hint for you on the previous post. I think all this movie business is a bit obsessive and plan to stop mentioning any trivia in the very near future, but back to my previous question: what does a river have to do with the joker and Heath Ledger's January death? Quickly, what if his death was a joke? What If it was all just to fool the people because he's a mastermind joker. The batman comic titled "The Killing Joke" is what inspired Heath Ledger's character in the new Batman movie, so maybe he took that title literally. Besides that, nothing. In fact, my joke was more of a riddle implying that maybe the Joker is really the Riddler, another Batman villain that I don't even know his role will be reprised. The highlight of my semester was going to Iguacu Falls and I wanted to show you pictures and a bit of the story which I will tell you about now:

Our approximate twenty-hour bus ride was almost enjoyable. Talking with others, watching movies and times of study got me through the bus ride. We got into northern Argentina and stayed at the NICEST HOTEL I"VE EVER BEEN IN! I wish I would have filmed some of the hotel. Anyway, we went to the Argentine side of the falls first which I thought was amazing.

That's my spoken (and written) understatement of the trip.

We took a motorized raft (which cost 40 dollars, not included) to be IN the falls. As in a bunch of water falling directly on you at very high speeds. That was a rush. Oh how I wish I could go back!!! Seriously. But alas, I have no pictures to prove that I did that, understandably. That was on Sunday.

We went to see a (huge) major dam, the Paraguay/Brazil/Argentina border (which consisted of a big river) some Guarani indians, an aviary, an awesome dinner show (many drinks come in glass bottles here) and much more on Monday and the rest of our week! 

So the cool thing is that our tour guides were father and son. The son was 22 and he was really cool!! He knew a bit of english and conversed with us well. I think we're going to play ultimate frisbee with him this Friday. 

Speaking of ultimate frisbee, I ended up getting a pretty nasty lip/nose during the game. Looking back I think it is funny. My red blood matches my red shirt!

I don't know.

Basically, our visit to Iguacu Falls made doing study abroad in South America well worth it!!!

Joking Predictions?

I'm back from Foz do Iguaçu.

IT was everything I was expecting

and more

Be back in a few days with more info, pics and a cool story

Here's what I was going to do before we left for Iguacu Falls. In hono

r and in memory of the Joker's death (heath Ledger) I leave you with this to figure out:

"What can run but never walks, has a mouth but never talks, has a head but never weeps, has a bed but never sleeps?"

More on this in a few days:

There are just SO many movies coming out this summer that I want to see!!

Batman and Indiana Jones are highest in my summer motion picture expectations, so I couldn't resist researching some cinematic info:

Indiana Jones 4: the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull -5/22

-Spielberg refused to modernize the photography and wanted to retain the comic book style from the previous films.

-John Hurt is in this and he was also in V for Vendetta and in Contact.

-Sean Connery emphatically turned down the offer to cameo in this movie.

-Frank Marshall and the cast wanted to make this movie less dark than the second, less comical than the third and more like the original.

-During filming, Spielberg estimated that 30% of the visual effects would have to be computer generated.

The Dark Knight -7/18

-Aaron Eckhart described his portrayal of Harvey Dent as simultaneously coming from and being apart from the same world as Batman (Dent is the white knight of Gotham, as opposed to the Dark Knight). His challenge was "looking for the similarities and the tension between the two; to find what's similar to Batman and then what's opposite to him." -----Eckhart also prepared for his role by studying split personalities.

--In 2007, Heath Ledger told MTV blogger Josh Horowitz rather prophetically that playing the Joker was “the most fun I’ve had with a character and probably will ever have.”

                       (How eerie!)

-Batman was fierce in the comics -- showing no remorse when tossing an evildoer into a vat of acid. 

Well, I'm pretty excited about this summer as I will be starting my summer by ending a semester in South America, being home for about a month and then to Houston, TX to do some VBS interning!

Southern Comfort?

Everything is amazing here ALL THE TIME!!

Yeah, no. Everything is not amazing here all the time. School is pretty academically intense and I rarely mention any bad times that go on here. But every once in a while, I sit back and realize 'I'm finally in Uruguay!!' and I am happy with that. 

And by the way, that was my april fools' day joke. The first line is the one with the joke.

But I really do have a real joke coming up...